Ardis Journal

I am truly grateful on this Thanksgiving day.  I have no money, no family (maybe Tom, but I haven't heard from him since he left to fight), I have no farm, all our money was stolen, and I have no place to go.  I know those sound like things that it is counter to logic to be grateful for.  I'm not grateful that those challenges had to happen.  I AM grateful for those blessings that have come in the middle of these events.

Blake Calkin saved my life.  He opened his home to me.  He has fed, and clothed me.  I can't imagine what I would have done without his kindness.  I do try to cook and clean for him.  The cleaning I do pretty well, the cooking...well let's just say that I have a way to go to make food that is tasty.  Currently I'm doing well to create edible food.

There are Native American women that live in Calkington.  Some of them are married, some simply live with a man.  Moral values are quite different here in the west.  It has been interesting for me to learn tolerance.  I'm learning that tolerance means not judging others by the standards you hold.  I know that some of these unions are quite abusive.  I helped John, (Dr. Stone), care for a woman who had been badly battered.  She was pregnant as well.  After Dr. John fixed her up she went back to live with her abuser.  Like me, she has no where to go, and no way to go anywhere.  I honestly thought, there but for the grace of God, go I.

I don't want to dwell on that sad topic.

These ladies have helped me learn about plants that I can use in cooking, and in medicinal teas.  They also have helped me to learn how to create dyes for making lovely fabric.  I am impressed by their resourcefulness.

I hope the things that I taught them, how to keep your child clean and how that improves their health, how to care for yourself, including using a small branch from a tree to keep your teeth clean, will be a help to them.

It has continued to rain, rain, rain.  I've gotten so used to the constant drumming on the roof that when it stopped the other night for a short time it woke me up!  Many people have lost their homes, several their lives.  The town has been destroyed.  Blake is working with the others in the community to plan a new location.

I am grateful for the people that I have met in this place.  More and more they feel like family and less like strangers.  I will never forget how lovingly they came to me after I lost my family, including our wee babe.

I have much to be thankful for today.  It's a good day to count our blessings, and a good day to look ahead to the future.

Recipe from the 19th century

RAG PUDDING

1 c sugar
1 cup milk
1 cup currants or raisins (for modern days, dried fruit of any type can be substituted)
Shaking of cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1 TBL grease (they used leftover bacon grease, or grease from any meat they had cooked)
Flour to thicken

Wet sack  (Flour came in a cloth sack.  Nothing was wasted.  The fabric was either used to make items of clothing, mostly underwear, or for cooking) in cold water put in pudding and place in kettle of boiling water to cook for
two hours.  Serve with sauce.  Dip

DIP

1 1/2 c water
1 c sugar
Shaking of nutmeg
Cream and Brandy
1 TBL cornstarch to thicken
(you can also add a shaking of cinnamon to taste)

I have done some research on my Great Grandma, Elizabeth Jane Hatch and one of her grandchildren sang the praises of this dish.  They also concluded that no matter how hard they tried they could simply not replicate an exact version as delicious as hers.  I imagine that there IS a missing ingredient in this recipe.  I believe that the ingredient is love.

Ardis Journal

It feels cozy tonight lying in bed in my warm flannel nightgown.  I have a beautiful quilt over me that Blake bought somewhere in his travels.  Rain is drumming, drumming, on the roof overhead, and tapping lightly on my small window.  Rain is singing a lullaby, but I don't want to sleep yet.

This is the first night since the crossing that I don't feel impelled to cry.  I feel as though God is giving me courage and strength beyond my own.  I don't want to feel ragging anger at Him anymore.  I'm soul weary.

Last night I dreamed that Papa Aidan visited.  He twirled me and then hugged me closely.  "Ardie Kay, we WILL be together again.  In life you were a rich blessing to us.  It is our turn to minister to you.  You won't see us, because faith is an important thing to gain.  Please, Ardie Kay don't be sad.  You keep telling us that you want us to be happy.  How can we be happy when you're so sad?  We fulfilled our work on this earth, but you are not done.  There is great joy and family ahead for you".

Ardis became aware that Aidan was fading from view and his voice was growing softer.  "We love you forever.  We'll stay close."

Ardis rolled to her other side, and Billy was there.  "Ardie Kay," he leaned down and kissed her cheek.  "I love you forever and always!  Don't be sad.  We're happy.  This is a wonderful place."  Then Billy began to fade out, "I love you forever and always Ardie Kay!"

Fiona was there.  Radiant with health and happiness Fiona held a baby.  "Don't mourn for us dear.  We're fine, and look, we have our baby, a precious girl.  You will always be her older sister."
The next thing that Ardis knew birds were singing her awake.  Sunlight filled the room with light.

Now, a night later, Ardis remembered her dream and pledged to herself, "I am going to do my best to be happy for my family.  They are together, happy, yet still connected to me and concerned about me."

They didn't mention Tom, so I guess he's still alive?  Sigh, I wish that he would write to me.  On the other hand, I will find ways to be happy, even with his uncertainty hanging over me.  Then she was asleep.
  

    

Ardis - Journal

My hands are shaking as I sit at Blake's table, holding a small journal that I brought with me from Tuckaleechee Cove.  Mama made it for me.  She tried to show me how to make one for myself but I fear that effort on her part was wasted.  My hands are shaking from the excess of emotion that faces me daily right now.  I try to fill my time with productive activities, but sometimes the loss of all that I love makes it impossible to do anything but cry!

The journey from Tuckaleechee Cove to Astoria, Oregon has not turned out at all as I thought that it should.  In my imaginings I expected to now be living in a small acreage in Astoria.  My husband would be with me.  His family would live close in a home of their own.  I would have parents in-law, a husband, and a beautiful younger brother-in law, who was truly my brother.

Instead, my entire family is dead, I lost the new life that Tom and I had begun in love, and I have no idea where Tom is?  He could be dead in some Eastern state, fighting for his conviction that the Union army has a just cause and are fighting for family, faith, and friends.

The acreage that we sold our lovely farm in Tuckaleechee Cove to purchase is non-existent.  We were defrauded.  J.P. Fowler is a terrible person, benefiting from the sorrows of others.  I have to pray hard to keep from wanting to find him and simply shoot him.  I am a crack shot.  My beloved Papa insisted that it was necessary for women to be able to defend themselves.  My Mama joined us many times as we shot at targets, or hunted for game.  She was also a perfect marksman...I mean...markswoman.  She always had a holster on her thigh.  She carried her pistol with her everywhere.  Now I carry it with ME everywhere.

At the same time I gain comfort in the knowledge that Mama and Papa still live on, just in a spiritual sense, not a physical sense.  They are eternal now, and we will be together again, and I will also be with my beloved in-laws, our baby, and perhaps Tom as well. (Maybe he is still alive...oh how I pray that is true).

I need to think about something a little more shallow.  I believe that it's very helpful to write in a personal journal.  It helps me to process the experiences I face in life.  Papa and Mama taught me to think as though everything in life depends on the me, and then pray as though everything depends on the good Lord.  They helped me to learn how to be a good team with my beloved God.  They also faced the hard things in life as adventure helping them to achieve growth.

Let's see, a shallow topic.  Blake has not shaved in about a week.  I'm not certain that I like the way he looks with a beard.  Some men look better with a beard.  For example, our dear President, Abraham Lincoln.  The beard covers some of the ruggedness of his face.  It seems to make him look more dignified and intelligent.  He looks like a President should look.

Blake has been marvelous.  He helped save my life in the crossing.  Since I had no place to go, and no money to go there, he took me in to his two bedroom cabin.  He has been nothing but a gentleman.  If I weren't a married woman, I would find him attractive in form and face, and faith.  Oh goodness, I must not let my thoughts stray in that direction.  Until I know otherwise, I AM A MARRIED WOMAN!

Since I have lived here, I have met many of the people in this tiny town called Calkington.  There is not another white woman in town that I could live with.  There is nothing in Tuckaleechee Cove for me to return to, and I don't have any money to return.  Oh goodness, my thoughts do seem to run in a circle today.

Ooops, I just noticed Blake's large clock on the wall that says that it's past time for me to start dinner.  More later dear diary.

Recipe...A Blast from the Past

The women of this series live close to the coast.  They are able to obtain seafood on a semi regular basis.  I imagine that this is a dish that they would have enjoyed immensely.  If you do not enjoy seafood, skip this post.  Or you find it interesting as a historical recipe.  I glean most of my historical recipes from my Grandmother, who gleaned most of hers from her Mother, my great-grandmother.  They were both excellent cooks, and enjoyed the preparation of food as a gift from themselves to those they loved.

SCALLOPED OYSTERS

1.  Carefully wash and pick one quart of oysters.  Remove all particles of shells and other debris.
2.  Mix one cup each of bread crumbs and add one half cup of melted butter.  Mix well and sprinkle the bottom of a buttered baking dish with a small layer of crumbs.
3.  Place on top of the crumbs in the baking dish a layer of oysters.
4.  Dust the oysters with the crumb blend.
5.  Put crumbs on top of oysters.
6.  Put another layer of oysters, dust the top with black pepper.
7.  Bake in a moderate oven (remember they did not have temperature adjustments on stoves...they were attempting to moderate the temperature of a wood or coal fueled fire),  fifteen to twenty minutes.
8.  A shallow baking dish should be selected for oysters so that they may be quickly heated and cooked.  Longer cooking at high heat toughens the oysters and destroys it's flavor.

Ardis, Women of the Drifting Anchor Ranch

Good news...I'm almost finished with the book that is the first chronologically in the series.  It's a stand alone book, but it also adds an important piece to the puzzle that is my series.

Ardis is an amazing woman.  She lives in an extremely important time in the history of our country.  Her family is moving by wagon train to Oregon when her husband discovers that the Civil War has begun.  Very excited he leaves his new wife, parents, and younger brother to continue their journey and he travels back east to join the Union Army.

Ardis faces her fears.  She is talented, intelligent, and loving.  Her adventures may surprise you.  Just like this idea.  Did you know that the first woman private detective was hired in 1857?  She worked for the Pinkerton Detective Agency.  She was instrumental in uncovering the plot to kill Abraham Lincoln before he could be sworn into office as president.

I love writing historical fiction because it allows me to combine two of my passions, history, and writing fiction.  It's a lovely challenge to undertake to create a fictional character and then meld that person into actual history.

Ardis is very young at merely 18 years of age.  She has already faced great challenge as the only child of parents who die when she's 16.

It was nearly impossible for a woman to find work in the 1800's.  They could not vote, and they were literally considered the property of their husbands.  When they married, any asset that they possessed was now owned by their spouse.  They virtually had no voice.

Yet it was women like Kate Warne, woman detective for the Pinkerton Agency who began a movement that would soon sweep our country.  The Civil War emancipated the slaves, it also forced women into some extremely uncomfortable types of growth and development.  As men left enmasse, women were forced to take up the slack that the men had left in employment.

My Mother-in law is an important part of my inspiration for the character of Ardis.  My beloved Mom in law divorced after 25 years of marriage was left with 5 sons to support financially.  She had very few job skills, having worked as a wife, and mother for all those years.

She took a job as a secretary/receptionist that barely earned any money.  Within a few years she had pushed herself upwards into investigating and research for the cases that were taken care of in her office.  Not long after she became the first women detective in consumer fraud for the state of Utah.  She was instrumental in shutting down some very large ponzy schemes.

This marvelous lady, a detective in her own right inspired me to have Ardis move into that arena.  Shanghaing was a terrible thing was happening in many port cities in the United States.  It was easy to involve Ardis in investigating this crime to try and stop it.

I will soon post a few chapters from my book. Please enjoy.

Deck the Halls!

My series, "Women of the Drifting Anchor Ranch," follows the time period from 1861 through 1880.  It's a fascinating time.  My characters move through the American Civil War as they make an exodus from the east to the west of America.  They forge raging rivers, they face the hostilities of nature, but they keep moving forward, even when putting one foot in front of the other seems impossible.

These remarkable people knew how to adapt their lives for the circumstances that they faced.  Below is an example of those abilities.

CHRISTMAS TREE GARLAND

Tools necessary:

1.  A sharp sewing needle
2.  Heavy duty thread (or double regular thread)
3.  Popcorn
4.  Cranberries

Thread the needle, and then put popcorn, cranberry, popcorn, cranberry.  (You can vary the pattern and put two popcorns and one cranberry, or any variety you wish).  When you run out of thread, or make the garland as long as you wish tie a knot in the end.

CHRISTMAS TREE ORNAMENT

Tools necessary:

Blank sheets of paper
Scissors
Thread, twine, or string

1.  Take a piece of blank paper, fold it in half several times. 
2.  Carefully cut different shapes at the crease of the folded paper
3.  Unfold one time, cut some triangles, or diamonds on the new fold
4.  Unfold again, cut more shapes
5.  Make a hole at the top of the snowflake.  Thread the yarn through, tie a knot on the end.  Hang on your tree
5.  Open your snowflake,